Real Time Monitoring of Interactions in Oil-in-Water Emulsions

Chapter 10

Real Time Monitoring of Interactions in Oil-in-Water Emulsions: Diffusing Wave and Ultrasonic Spectroscopy

Downloaded by MONASH UNIV on August 2, 2013 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: March 3, 2009 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2009-1007.ch010

M. Alexander, J. Liu, and M. Corredig* Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada

Diffusing wave and ultrasonic spectroscopy were employed to study the interactions occurring in sodium-caseinate stabilized oil droplets in the presence of two charged polysaccharides (high methoxyl pectin and soy soluble polysaccharide). These mixed systems, studied at high pH or during acidification, offered different model systems with different dynamics: droplet aggregation due to decreased electrostatic and steric interactions, bridging or depletion flocculation. By observing the bulk changes occurring in the system with non-invasive techniques, it was possible not only to measure accurately the point of destabilization, but also identify the changes occurring at the early stages of structure development and the modifications in the spatial arrangement of the droplets in real time.

© 2009 American Chemical Society

In Micro/Nanoencapsulation of Active Food Ingredients; Huang, Q., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2009.

157

158 Food emulsions of the oil-in-water type are often stabilized by protein systems such as sodium caseinate (a mixture of the four principal casein proteins, a , a , β and κ-caseins). At neutral pH these proteins stabilize the emulsion droplets via steric and electrostatic interactions (/). When lowering the pH towards the isoelectric point of the proteins, the protein-covered oil droplets lose their stability and droplet flocculation occurs sl

s2


(21

Charged polysaccharides are often added to control the bulk properties of these emulsions (i.e. viscosity, appearance, microstructure, stability). Understanding the dynamics of the interactions occurring at the interface between the polysaccharides and the adsorbed proteins is of great importance to ensure optimal quality of the final product. Although the molecular mechanisms involved in the interaction of charged polysaccharides and proteins are known, our understanding of the dynamics during structure formation in emulsion systems derives mainly from studies under diluted conditions. Therefore, it is not always possible to predict the bulk properties because these same properties will depend on the concentration of the polymer and the volume fraction of the oil droplets. In the presence of polysaccharides, changes in the bulk properties of emulsions often occur because of due to phase separation by depletion or bridging mechanisms. When repulsive or attractive forces dominate, structuring of the colloidal system takes place and in most cases the system is in metastable conditions. For this reason, the early stages of these reactions can be easily affected by the measurements themselves. In colloidal systems such as emulsions containing polysaccharides, the dynamics of the interactions are not fully understood and most published work either focused on identifying aggregation and flocculation phenomena (i.e, rheology, microscopy, or simply following macroscopic creaming) or on determining changes occurring to the particle size of the system using traditional light scattering techniques, which require extremely dilute conditions. In recent years non-invasive techniques such as ultrasonic spectroscopy and diffusing wave spectroscopy have been applied to study the reactions in colloidal systems. These techniques have proven very useful to determine the details of the interactions occurring duringflocculationof emulsion droplets.

Effect of Charged Polysaccharides on the Bulk Properties of Protein-stabilized Emulsions The reactions occurring at the molecular level between charged polysaccharides and proteins are fairly known (3). When both the polysaccharide and the protein are negatively charged (often this is the case in



159 food emulsions at high pH), electrostatic forces induce repulsion between the molecules. On the other hand, if the polymers have opposite charges, electrostatic interactions will occur, causing the adsorption of the polysaccharide at the interface (4, 5). This manuscript summarizes our observations on a model system containing sodium-caseinate stabilized oil droplets and two negatively charged polysaccharides, high methoxyl pectin (HMP) and soy soluble polysaccharide (SSPS). HMP is a galacturonic acid-based polysaccharide with a high degree of methylesterification, with branches of neutral sugar (i.e. arabinose, galactose and xylose). HMP has been shown to interact with casein particles in acid milk beverages at pH < 5.0 and to stabilize the suspensions with a combination of electrostatic and steric stabilization (6). At neutral pH and above a critical concentration, HMP causes depletion flocculation of protein-stabilized emulsions (3, 5, 7). SSPS is also an acidic polysaccharide extracted from soy cotyledons, consisting of homogalacturonan and rhamnogalacturonan, branched with galactan and arabinan chains (8). SSPS has also been shown to stabilize casein particles in acidified milk by interacting with proteins at low pH (9). However, SSPS has a different interacting mechanism than HMP, because of the higher amount of branched neutral sugars, the presence of small amounts of protein, its globular structure and its relatively small radius (about 25 nm) (10). For example, when compared to HMP at high pH, SSPS does not cause depletion flocculation of protein-stabilized emulsions at concentrations as high as 0.3% (7).

Ultrasonic Spectroscopy As an ultrasonic wave propagates through a colloidal sample, the density and compressibility inhomogeneities encountered in its path will cause a change in the s intensity and phase of the incoming wave. The changes in phase of the sound wave are related to the velocity of the wave propagating through the system. Ultrasonic velocity is an optimal parameter for characterizing chemical reactions or changes in chemical composition of solutions (11). In colloidal systems more information can be derived from measurements of attenuation of the ultrasonic wave, which is related to the decrease in the intensity of the sound wave during its propagation. This parameter is sensitive to changes in the range of nanometers to micrometers, depending on the range of frequencies tested (12). The attenuation of the ultrasonic wave derives mostly from thermal, viscoinertial and scattering components (12, 13). In food emulsions viscoinertial effects are not as important as thermal effects, as the former are only significant when there is a gradient in density between the dispersed particle and its surroundings. Thermal effects on the other hand depend on the physical properties of the various components in the system, such as thermal expansion,


160 heat capacity and heat conductance. In oil-in-water emulsions, the thermal attenuation is the main reason for losses in attenuation. The compression and decompression of the ultrasonic wave during propagation cause a heat flow between the colloidal particle and the solvent phase, and a thermal gradient forms at the interface. Total attenuation from scattering, as the ultrasound energy is directed away from its path, becomes increasingly important as the particle size increases (12, 13).


Diffusing Wave Spectroscopy In D W S the intensity fluctuation of a speckle of scattered light is measured in a multiple scattering regime and a time-resolved correlation function is derived. In contrast with traditional dynamic light scattering, where highly diluted samples are required to avoid multiple scattering, D W S requires turbid systems, as the photon path through the sample is treated as a random walk (14). The parameters derived from D W S experiments can yield not only information on the size of the scatterers, but also on particle interactions. The photon transport mean free path (1*) is the length over which the direction of the incoming photon is completely randomized. The decorrelation of light is related to the physical properties of the sample as well as their spatial arrangement. The 1* parameter is a function of the scattering form factor F(q) and the structure factor S(q), where q (q=47tnA,sin(0/2)) is the scattering vector, η is the index of refraction of the medium and λ is the wavelength in vacuum (14). F(q) is related to shape, size, refractive index contrast, physical changes in the scattering system, while S(q) is related to the spatial correlation between the particles (14, 15). The value of I* can be calculated from static measurements of light transmission (in multiple scattered systems) (14) and once 1* is determined, it is possible to solve the autocorrelation function from the multiple scattered events and calculate the diffusion coefficient and the radius of the scatterer using the Stokes-Einstein relation, knowing the values of viscosity of the solution.

Experimental Stock emulsions were prepared containing 0.5% (w/w) sodium caseinate in ultrapure water and 10% soybean oil using a high pressure valve homogenizer (Emulsiflex C5, Avestin Inc., Ottawa, O N , Canada) with three passes at 40 MPa. H M P (67.4 % methylation, unstandardized, CpKelco, San Diego, C A , U S A ) and SSPS ( D A 300S, Fuji Oil Co. Ltd, Japan) dispersions were prepared in ultrapure water at 70°C continuously stirring to room temperature. Emulsions and



161 solutions were stored at 4°C for 24 h, and before mixing the pH was adjusted to pH 6.8 using NaOH. The viscosity of the polysaccharide solutions was measured using a Ubbelohde viscometer (type A859 size IB, Industrial Research Glassware, N J , USA). The polysaccharides were added to the emulsions to a final oil concentration of 6% (w/w) and varying levels of SSPS or H M P up to 0.2% (w/w). Mixtures were studied at pH 6.8 as well as during acidification. Acidification was induced by slow hydrolysis of 0.3% glucono-δ-lactone (GDL). The pH was continuously measured in parallel with the spectroscopy experiments. The average apparent diameter of the emulsions with or without polysaccharide at pH 6.8 was measured using dynamic light scattering (DLS) (Zeta Sizer Nano ZS, Z E N 3600, Malvern Inst. Ltd. U K ) after extensive dilution in 10 m M imidazole buffer at pH 6.8 filtered through 0.2 μπι. Transmission D W S measurements were carried out as previously described (15), with a solid-state laser (532 nm, 100 mW, Omnichrome, Chino, C A , U S A ) and a 5 mm quartz cuvette at 23°C. The laser intensity (for measurement of 1*) was determined using 269 nm latex spheres (Portland Duke Scientific, Palo Alto, C A , U S A ) . A high resolution ultrasonic spectrometer (HR-US102, Ultrasonic Scientific, Dublin, Ireland) was used to measure the changes in velocity and attenuation of sound as described elsewhere (16). The samples were equilibrated and measured at 23°C. In the acidification experiments samples with no G D L were used in the reference cell. The instrument was calibrated with water at 25°C, and tuned to measure six frequencies (3, 5, 8, 11 and 15 MHz). The results shown are the average of three replicate experiments.

Results and Discussion At neutral pH, sodium caseinate-stabilized oil droplets are negatively charged. At this pH, both H M P and pectin will not interact with the droplets because of electrostatic repulsion between like-charges. The apparent diameter of the oil droplets was measured using DLS and D W S (Figure 1 ) as a function of polysaccharide concentration. Results derived from D L S suggest that the hydrodynamic diameter of the emulsion droplets does not change as a function of H M P or SSPS concentration. These observations are in agreement with previously published research reporting a lack of interactions between the protein surface and SSPS molecules at neutral pH (5, 7). However, D L S experiments are performed after extensive dilution. The diameter values calculated from D W S data on the other hand,


162


show a constant diameter for emulsions containing SSPS, while indicate an increase in the apparent size of the emulsion droplets in emulsions with >0.07% H M P . Since these apparent diameters are calculated correcting for medium viscosity, change in the apparent size suggest the formation of flocculated clusters. The discrepancies between D L S and D W S data confirm the occurrence of depletion flocculation at high concentration of H M P . The difference in behaviour between H M P and SSPS at high pH, and the lack of depletion flocculation in emulsions containing SSPS has already been shown for soy protein-stabilized emulsions (7) and can be explained by the different structure of SSPS, highly branched and much less elongated than that of H M P (JO).

200 0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

Polysaccharide (%) Figure 1. Average diameter as a function ofpolysaccharide added to sodium caseinate emulsions at pH 6.8, measured using DWS (filled symbols) and dynamic light scattering (empty symbols). Emulsions containing HMP (squares) and SSPS (circles).

Figure 2 illustrates the changes in the 1/1* parameter measured by D W S and the ultrasonic attenuation measured by US in the emulsions at neutral pH as a function of polysaccharide concentration. When H M P is added to the emulsion the ultrasonic attenuation and the 1/1* parameter show a decrease with H M P concentration up to 0.07 before leveling off with increasing concentration of H M P . It is clearly demonstrated that the results obtained from D W S and US are in full agreement. The changes in 1/1* can be associated to changes in the refractive index of the medium, particle size and spatial correlation between the scatterers. It is



163 possible to hypothesize that at low H M P concentrations no changes occur to the form factor (F(q)) and most of the changes are reflected by a rearrangement of the particles thus affecting (S(q)). This hypothesis is confirmed by the results obtained using ultrasonic spectroscopy: a decrease in the attenuation of sound with increasing H M P concentration. The formation of droplet-rich domains will cause an overlap of the viscothermal effects caused by the compression and decompression of the ultrasonic wave. The overlap of the viscothermal effect will decrease the thermal losses and this will be reflected in a decrease in the attenuation of the ultrasonic wave. As both the 1/1* parameter and the ultrasonic attenuation reflect changes in the arrangement of the colloidal particles in the system, it was concluded that the steep decrease in 1/1* and attenuation at HMP

Real Time Monitoring of Interactions in Oil-in-Water Emulsions

Recommend Documents